The return of the Camps

Several German states want to forcibly place quarantine breakers in guarded "segregation sites"
by Rudolf Hansel

"Never again!" was the vow made in Germany at the end of the war. But good intentions fade with the passing of years, and so in 2021 we find ourselves in a situation in which quite a few of those in power take the view: "Maybe again - at least a little."

Mainstream media recently calmly reported that quarantine breakers are to be threatened with forced commital to central detention centers. Armed guards would prevent escape attempts. Is this the lesson to be learnt from German history? On the slippery slope that is leading the country forward into its darkest past, there seems to be no stopping. Now, at the latest, it is time to break the silence and to revolt.

I am German, born towards the end of the Second World War, and I – as posterity – suffered from oppressive feelings of guilt throughout my student years because of the atrocities committed by many Germans during Hitler's reign of fascism.

Since I have as a German - and certainly not only me! – these intrusive and dark memories of the beginnings of the German internment and concentration camps at the start of the period of German National Socialism, I am saying, writing and screaming this news to the whole world.

I can no longer remain silent, because "silence means betrayal." So said the U.S. Baptist pastor and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, in his historic speech against the Vietnam War (2).

Resist the beginnings!

On January 17, 2021, Focus online wrote the headline "Several federal states want to forcibly intern quarantine breakers":

"According to a report in the newspaper Welt am Sonntag, several German states now want to take tougher action against those who persistently break their quarantine. In addition to high fines, in the future, in extreme cases, disregard of the current regulations may result in forced commital to central collection centers, clinics or youth detention centers. This is already being practised in individual cases on the basis of judicial orders" (3).

Subsequently, the plans of the six federal states Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Saxony, Bavaria and Berlin were presented in detail.

In the German concentration camps, not only millions of Jews, but also many other people were murdered, "such as communists, socialists, clergy, system critics, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, the mentally handicapped, and supposedly 'anti-social elements' " (4).

In this context, the statements of the Bavarian Prime Minister and head of the CSU, Markus Söder – who has been warning publicly for days that, emerging from the milieu of opposed citizens and "lateral thinkers" who do not agree with the illegal state coercive measures, a "Corona mob," even a "Corona-RAF" with a possible "terrorist cell" could emerge (5) – foreshadow what might be in store for German citizens. The "Red Army Fraction” was a left-wing terrorist group in the Federal Republic of Germany between the 1970s and the 1990s.

"When the Nazis took the communists, I kept silent …"

In conclusion, recall the words of German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892 to 1984)! He spoke out openly against Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of National Socialist rule in concentration camps. After the end of the war he wrote the following lines:

"When the Nazis came for the Communists,
I kept silent,
I was not a Communist.

When they locked up the Social Democrats,
I kept silent,
I was not a Social Democrat.

When they took the trade unionists,
I kept silent,
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left
who could protest" (6).

Sources and Notes:

(1) https://www.focus.de/finanzen/recht/klinikerstaufnahmeeinrichtung

(2) https://www.globalresearch.ca/beyond-vietnam-a-time-to-break-silence-martin-luther-kings-historic-1967-speech-silence-is-betrayal/5634466

(3) https://www.focus.de/finanzen/recht/klinikerstaufnahmeeinrichtung

(4) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konzentrationslager

(5) https://www.merkur.de/politik/soeder-csu-coronavirus-rafgewalt-

(6) www.martin-niemoeller-stiftung.de/martin-niemoeller/als-di

Rudolf hansel Rudolf Hänsel, born in 1944, holds a doctorate in educational science, is a former teacher and school counselor, and a psychologist with a focus on clinical psychology, educational psychology and media psychology. He is a book author as well as author of articles on the topics of youth violence, media violence and values education.

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